Despite educating large swaths of Black students, a disproportionate number of first generation students, and a rapidly increasing number of Latino students—Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are under siege in many southern states.

State policy makers are moving toward funding mechanisms that disproportionately disadvantage HBCUs, and many policy makers and pundits have called for the elimination of these schools altogether.

In a report released recently, "America’s Public HBCUs: A Four State Comparison of Institutional Capacity and State Funding Priorities," William Casey Boland and Marybeth Gasman present a case study of these institutions in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina, and call for thoughtful reform in state funding and policy to better support their missions.

The report, which builds on a pre-recession study by James T. Minor, has been issued from Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. The report unveils the historical and current racial disparities in state funding allocations to HBCUs and offers strategies to obtain more equitable state allocations.

HBCUs continue to play a crucial role in successfully graduating underrepresented students, and they continue to evolve with changing populations and needs. Moving forward, Boland and Gasman offer recommendations and action plans for state governments and HBCUs for increasing state support to strengthen these historical educational institutions.

A theme throughout the recommendations is for state policy makers to temper calls for efficiency—including performance-based funding initiatives and program duplication assessments—so that they don’t come at the expense of students served by HBCUs.

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